BRUSSELS, June 26 (Reuters) – European Union leaders will
urge Russia on Friday to stop the flow of weapons and militants
across its border with Ukraine and will threaten tougher
sanctions, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

EU officials said it was unlikely however that the leaders
would actually give the go-ahead to new sanctions at the summit,
when they will be briefed by Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko.

BRUSSELS/PARIS, June 26 (Reuters) – Russia’s cut in gas
supplies to Ukraine has driven European Union leaders to debate
how to bridge the gaps in Europe’s grid urgently, replacing
decades of fragmentation with a single, united energy market.

EU policymakers have long dreamed of matching economic union
with energy union, in which power and gas flow freely from
Amsterdam to Athens.

BRUSSELS, June 25 (Reuters) – The European Union’s top
negotiator in the gas price row between Ukraine and Russia said
on Wednesday he would call Moscow as soon as possible to try to
get both sides back to talks and Ukraine meanwhile should fill
up its gas storage.

The row over how much Ukraine should be paying Russia for
its gas is unresolved after more than a month of talks brokered
by EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger.

BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters) – Europe’s best chance of
standing up to the supply insecurity caused by the
Russia-Ukraine conflict is a close-knit energy union to thwart
Moscow’s divide and rule strategy, a draft document laying out
the next five years of EU energy policy says.

A week ago, Russia cut off gas to Ukraine because of a row
over pricing and unpaid bills.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Non-EU nation Norway will only help the European Union with any supply crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine gas price dispute if it makes commercial sense, officials told a meeting called in Brussels on Friday to address energy security.

Ukraine, which also attended the meeting of the EU gas coordination group, promised it would ensure “continued and undisturbed transport of gas”.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is almost on track to reach its goal of improving energy savings by a fifth by 2020 and may consider a significantly higher target for the next decade, according to a draft European Commission document seen by Reuters.

Energy efficiency has risen up the agenda in Europe as member states seek ways to reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels in the context of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has led to the cut-off of Russian gas to Ukraine.

Momentum is building for a binding energy efficiency goal in
the European Union. Some members argue it would improve energy
security by reducing demand as the bloc seeks to wean itself off
dependency on Russian gas and other imported fossil fuel.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s top negotiator in the gas price row between Russia and Ukraine is working to bring the two sides together again before mid-July, but said a weekend of bloodshed in Ukraine had made the task far harder.

Russia’s gas supply monopoly Gazprom turned off gas supplies to Ukraine on Monday after the latest round of talks between the European Commission, Kiev and Moscow broke down in the early hours of Monday.

LUXEMBOURG, June 13 (Reuters) – Negotiations to bring
Russia’s giant South Stream project into line with European
Union law are pointless as long as Moscow is asking the World
Trade Organisation to review the bloc’s energy rules, Europe’s
energy chief said on Friday.

Russia’s Gazprom plans to build a giant pipeline
named South Stream on the bed of the Black Sea to Bulgaria and
then to Austria to ship gas directly to the EU, bypassing
Ukraine, through which a large part of EU gas supplies currently
travels.

LUXEMBOURG, June 13 (Reuters) – EU energy ministers agreed a
deal on Friday to limit production of biofuels made from food
crops, responding to criticism these stoke inflation and do more
environmental harm than good.

The ministers’ endorsement of a new compromise overcomes a
stalemate hit late last year when European Union governments
failed to agree on a proposed 5 percent cap on the use of
biofuels based on crops such as maize or rapeseed.